(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
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Trans Youth Are Moving From States With Anti-Trans Laws in Search of Safety, Health Care [1]
['Condé Nast', 'Fortesa Latifi']
Date: 2023-08-03 11:00:00+00:00
In the meantime, they’ll try to find a way to live in the Northeast, and Kimberly will make sure she has everything lined up in case her family needs to flee farther next time — not to another state, but another country. “I started checking into things in New Zealand,” she says. “That looks really promising. I don’t know. I’m waiting for a safe country to say, ‘We are a safe country and we welcome American refugees.’”
Devin Myers, 22, did not plan on leaving Florida before finishing her college degree. She loved her school, Florida A&M, and was proud to attend an HBCU (a historically Black college or university). But she reached her breaking point while reporting for a college class on an anti-trans bathroom bill that Politico reported would “make it a misdemeanor trespassing offense for someone to use bathrooms [in state and local government buildings, schools, colleges, and detention centers] that don’t align with their sex at birth.”
Devin Myers
Myers, a trans woman, remembers looking around and thinking, What if I have to go to the bathroom while I’m at the Florida State Capitol? “Let’s say I go to the bathroom and I end up there with the Capitol Police and these people that are writing laws against me,” Myers says. “There’s anxiety that comes with just going to any bathroom in Florida [and] being trans. It’s terrifying.”
Myers was on track to graduate in spring 2024, but she left Florida with one year left to finish her degree. She moved to Brooklyn, where she says she feels it is safer for her to simply exist and she has a community of queer people who understand her struggle.
But that doesn’t mean it was easy to leave Florida. “I’m definitely mourning,” Myers says. “There’s a lot of goodness in Florida, a lot of good people and good communities. I don’t want to forget about that in having left.” Now she’s settling into life in New York, trying to figure out the best way to finish her degree, with dreams of becoming a sports journalist. “I’m switching to online school and kind of praying.”
Skyler Morrison, 15, was nine years old when her parents told her they were leaving Texas in search of a safer state for her to be a trans kid. She had been involved in state-level activism, speaking out against Texas bathroom bills; but when more people in the community became aware of her activism, the bullying got bad. A former friend threatened Skyler with physical violence. Someone they knew said his kids couldn’t play with her anymore.
Skyler and Chelsea Morrison
The family moved to Arizona, where Skyler’s mother, Chelsea, says they feel a “breath of safety” with Democratic governor Katie Hobbs signing executive orders to protect the queer community and continuously vetoing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. Skyler has taken to life in Arizona, where she loves the desert landscape, camping, and visiting Sedona.
But she misses the friends and family she had to leave behind in Texas. It’s traumatic, Skyler says, to be forced out of your home: “No kid should be forced to leave the place where they grew up because of some stupid laws.”
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[1] Url:
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/trans-youth-moving-states-anti-trans-laws
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